World View & Market Commentary. Forest first; Trees second. Focused on Real & Knowable facts that filter through the "experts" fluff and media hyperbole. Where we've been, what the future may hold and developing a better way forward.

Sept. 14 (Bloomberg) -- China announced a probe into the alleged dumping of American auto and chicken products, two days after U.S. President Barack Obama imposed tariffs on imports of tires from the Asian nation.

Chinese industries have complained that they’re being hurt by “unfair trade practices,” the nation’s Ministry of Commerce said on its Web site yesterday. The Beijing-based ministry is also looking into subsidies for the products, it said. It didn’t specify the imports’ value.

Stiglitz, former chief economist at the World Bank and member of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, said the world economy is “far from being out of the woods” even if it has pulled back from the precipice it teetered on after the collapse of Lehman.

“We’re going into an extended period of weak economy, of economic malaise,” Stiglitz said. The U.S. will “grow but not enough to offset the increase in the population,” he said, adding that “if workers do not have income, it’s very hard to see how the U.S. will generate the demand that the world economy needs.”

The Federal Reserve faces a “quandary” in ending its monetary stimulus programs because doing so may drive up the cost of borrowing for the U.S. government, he said.

“The question then is who is going to finance the U.S. government,” Stiglitz said.

You can see why markets and governments both like to blame Lehman Brothers for the "Great Contraction". Such wishful thinking shields investors from the nasty reality that deeper forces are at work: it absolves officialdom from its own destructive role in fixing the price of credit too low for 20 years, luring us into debt.

On the eve of the one-year anniversary of Lehman's liquidation filing , the US President will on Monday warn that there remains much to be done to ensure the problems of the last 12 months do not happen again.

Speaking just 10 days before the start of the G20 summit in Pittsburgh – at which world leaders are set to discuss curtailing bankers' bonuses among a raft of potentially restrictive reforms – he will also put the amount of capital banks hold on their balance sheets back at the top of the agenda, acknowledging that the demise of Lehman and Bear Stearns were a by-product of inadequate capital requirements.

In a wide-reaching speech on the need for regulatory reform in order to avert another financial crisis he will call on the US Senate banking committee to kick-start work on these reforms as soon as possible.

Speaking from Federal Hall on Wall Street, just steps from the New York Stock Exchange, President Obama will stress that regulators and legislators not only in the US, but around the world, need to take the next steps to tighten financial regulation.

His comments will be closely watched by the banking fraternity on both sides of the Atlantic, eager to ensure that regulations do not become overly

As I watched some of the Sunday talk shows this weekend, I had to laugh at the fools who pass for journalists today. The outrage over Joe Wilson calling the President a liar because he was lying shows how trite and shallow these nattering nabobs have become. Four U.S. Presidents have been murdered in office for their views. Let’s have some perspective people. As I watched Sam (worst toupee in history) Donaldson, Cokie Roberts, and David Brooks heap scorn and ridicule on the thousands of concerned middle class Americans marching on the Mall in Washington, while applauding Ben Bernanke, Hank Paulson and Timmy Geithner for saving the world by printing money, I realized that the existing political and financial system will have to be brought down before we have any chance to regain our liberty in this country. The power of the Washington/Wall Street/Media elite is immense. We will not get the truth from these people. We must turn to the past for our wisdom and truth:

“I am sorry to think that you do not get a man's most effective criticism until you provoke him. Severe truth is expressed with some bitterness.” – Henry David Thoreau